Same thing with debates – they were a spirited and crowd-pleasing way to have the great unwashed listen to the positions of the candidates, and some of them were quite pointed and famous “Mr. Douglas, you can take your ‘Popular Sovereignty’ and stick it where the sun shineth not!” (I am paraphrasing).

But what is the point now? The candidates don’t address each other, just re-hash prepared speeches, speak in vague generalities (I suppose all generalities are vague, no?) and basically serve no purpose.

However, I was pleased to see that Cheney isn’t even trying to hide the evil anymore. At one point during the vice presidential debate he tried to stab Edwards, and then molested a girl scout. You should see the video clip on Yahoo! News. Hil-fucking-arious.

Anyway, whatever. Conan’s on.

The good thing is that the terminators Republicans are generally good for the economy. Well, Reagan was, anyway. W isn’t so great for the economy.

Okay, WAR is good for the economy usually. But only the ones we win. Now that we’re spend spend spending in Vietnam Iraq, it looks like our “swift and decisive” victory is going to be pyrrhic after all.

And I’ve got to stop using that strike-out joke lame attempt at humour.

This extended entry has been TERMINATED.

The people that are speaking out against the war in Iraq piss me off – not because they’re anti-war, or they think that this was was unprovoked, or they disagree with U.S. foreign policy – but because they’re so poorly informed about it, and don’t really have a true opinion as much as a stance. They’re against the war for the sake of being against the war. And heck, those protest rallys give them something to do for a few hours.

I won’t delve into the question of whether or not these people have anything better to do with their lives than stand around holding signs that say “No more Bush,” because they obviously don’t.

Nor will I point out the futility of their actions, or say much about how being a nuisance in a major metropolitan area will have little effect on hostilities occurring 5,000 miles away.

These things are a given.

I just wonder about the hypocracy of the people who are so worried about the innocent Iraqi civilians that they think being slaughtered and tortured by their own government is better than the chance of maybe being accidentally killed by a U.S. attack. I have noticed that a lot of the protesters seem to also attend rallies to legalize marijuana, so that may account for some of the contradictions.

Saddam Hussein has been torturing and killing his own people for YEARS. He’s used chemical weapons on thousands of Kurds in his own country. I don’t recall hearing of rallies protesting that, because the world’s protesting public (consisting usually of poorly educated college age kids with much free time on their hands) tend not to care about such things.

These are the same people who, if they lived in the 1930s, would have said “Oh, that Hitler guy isn’t so bad. So he kills a few Jews. It’s not like he’s doing anything to us.”

Let’s reiterate this: killing Kurds is okay with these people. Killing Iraqi soldiers isn’t.

Why the distinction? Why are some lives more important than others?

This morning some “protesters” in San Francisco got out of hand and began assaulting commuters on their way to work, then broke some shop windows (mostly electronics stores and high-end clothing shops – these looters have discriminating tastes) and started stealing things.

But of course assaulting people and looting will help end the war in Iraq, so it’s okay.

Protesters are no longer simply voicing their opinions and trying to turn others towards their point of view. They’ve become terrorists, gathering together so that they can form a greater threat. They’re not hurting the government, they’re not doing anything to stop the war – they’re trying to hurt those whose opinions differ from theirs. Instead of convincing the “other” that their opinions are wrong, they’re trying to use muscle to silence opposing viewpoints.

Protesters always represent the losing side of an argument.

I don’t really have too much to add to the discussion, but needed to at least mention it. I’m sure I won’t be able to watch television for a few days without hearing more analysis along the lines of “we don’t know what happened, we’re not speculating, and our support must go to the families…” – in other words, politics as usual.

Some assholes are trying to sell pieces of the debris on Ebay. Besides being highly illegal (it’s gov’t property) and unethical (as every piece could give investigators info about what caused the disaster) it’s also incredibly stupid – they may as well post a sign saying “Arrest me!”

Okay, enough. I have a new Palm handheld to play with. More on that later.

We now rank 48th out of the 50 states in our state deficit. Whee!

Republican Tom “Mr. Homeland Security” Ridge didn’t seem to do much for the state, so even though I’m a registered Republican (that’s a topic for another day) I voted for Rendell. I’m feeling optimistic that he won’t let me down, but then I don’t really expect much from him.

You know what they say – the surest way not to be disappointed is to lower your expectations to the point where they’re already met.

This morning, a href="http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/11/worldtrade.crash/index.html"
title="CNN Story on the terrorist attacks">
coordinated terrorist attack was launched
against the United States. Two U.S. airliners were hijacked
by as-yet unidentified terrorists, and crashed into the
World Trade Center’s twin towers and another hijacked
airliner crashed into the Pentagon. A fourth plane was
hijacked and crashed in a field in Western Pennsylvania,
just south east of Pittsburgh. The victims number in
the tens of thousands.

I almost can’t believe that this has
happened. It’s like something out of a movie.
I’ve seen the footage of the second plane crashing into the
trade center tower played over and over again and it still
doesn’t seem quite real. This attack seems designed
to create horror – more than a bombing, the thought of one
of our own airplanes crashing into the greatest symbols of
American commerce and military strength is so horrific… I
don’t even know what to say.

This is undoubtedly the worst attack on American
soil in my lifetime. All day I’ve been struggling
back and forth between feelings of sadness and anger.
My heart goes out to the victims’ families, and we can only
hope that this cowardly and vicious attack on America
doesn’t lead to full-scale war, although thoughts of
revenge do come to mind. President Bush has said that
the perpetrators of this atrocity will be hunted down and
punished, and I think he speaks for all of us, expressing
our national horror and anger at this attack.